


RE:Toast

by BrokenGlass201



Series: RE:Birth [4]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Denial, Gen, History, Origin Story, Some feels, Sort Of, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:20:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21970549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenGlass201/pseuds/BrokenGlass201
Summary: Done with repairs, Blaster decides to have a chat with his favourite and only brother. His friends are concerned and are right to be.
Series: RE:Birth [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1437325
Kudos: 13





	RE:Toast

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to go with solar-cycles for days and stellar-cycles for years.  
> I really cannot stand cybertronian units of time pfft.

After spending 4 solar-cycles fiddling with communication systems hardware and software, Blaster had had enough. The communications system wasn’t about to come back online anytime soon, and it was nothing to do with his lack of ability to repair it. They simply didn’t have viable replacements for certain key components, which was unsurprising given how they lost more than half their ship in the crash. With a frustrated sigh he grabbed a datapad and made yet another addition to his ‘parts that need replacing’ list.

‘Still at it?’ Blaster gave a small jump, he didn’t hear the door open, but he didn’t need to turn to know who the voice belonged to. As communications officer he knew everyone’s voice, it would be embarrassing if he didn’t.

‘Yeah still here, you wanna crack at it Jazz?’

The black and white mech grinned ‘Naa, you look like you’re enjoying yourself.’

Blaster squinted at his friend ‘No Jazz. No.’ a quick glance at the missing ceiling above Jazz told Blaster exactly how he'd entered the room.

Jazz laughed as he walked over putting a hand on his mentor figure's shoulder. ‘Take a break mech.’

He glanced at the mess that was the communications systems, the datapad and then at Jazz. ‘You know what. I think I will. Need to catch up with Toaster anyway. Discovered a couple odd things about this planet that I think he’ll find a riot.’

Perking up, Blaster shuffled the tools in an attempt to neaten his workstation not noticing his friends concerned expression.

‘Hey mech. Ya know Toasty can’t…’

‘Talk? Yeah I know. But that doesn’t mean he can’t hear me. Some bots say that you can sometimes still hear things while you’re in stasis and I don’t want Toaster to feel alone.’

‘Well if you need anyone to talk to just ping me mech, or Moonracer.’ Jazz forced a weak smile which went unnoticed by the orange Autobot.

‘You can come with if you’re free? I’m sure Toaster would appreciate it. Ramhorn too. I think he’s feeling a little down without the other cassettes and it'd be nice to see you guys more often.’

‘Hmmm...Makes you wonder if you should have left him with the others on Cybertron.’

‘Couldn’t if I wanted to. They’re quite stubborn. The only reason the others aren’t here right now is cuz Docbot refused to allow injured mech on this wild game of ‘follow me’. Ramhorn was the only one that wasn’t too beat up and he refused to be left behind. Kinda hard to say no when it’s me against 4.’

Jazz nodded ‘Actually, I caught Steeljaw trying to sneak into the Ark just before it launched. Poor thing was more than upset when I brought him back to Minerva.’

‘It’s for the best though. Hey, so you coming along?’

Jazz held up a hand ‘Sorry mech but I got things to do, just dropped in to make sure you hadn’t completely lost it with this busted thing.’ He kicked part of what was left of the communications system.

‘Well thanks for that, I’ll be seeing you then.’

Jazz gave a small wave as his friend left watching him with a defeated smile laced with concern and worry. A smile Blaster was blissfully unaware of.

***

‘What’s shaken brother?’ asked Blaster loudly announcing his presence once he entered his hab. Ramhorn, who had been dozing on the berth onlined an optic before returning to his nap. Blaster noticed and quietly added a soft ‘Sorry’ while he crept over to the desk on the other side of the room. There in all its glory sat up on the desk was a 10 foot tall grey toaster, a red autoboot insignia carved proudly on it’s sides. Blaster pulled up the chair and plonked himself down putting his elbows on the table and holding his head in his hands. ‘Communications is still down and will stay down until we can either get replacement parts. I don’t think anything these ‘Earthlings’ have is strong enough to substitute so I guess Wheeljack and the others will just have to make them.’ He chuckled quietly ‘Funny enough this planet’s technology reminds me of that planet you scouted way back during Nominus’s time and where you got **this** silly alt.’ Blaster playfully knocked the toaster shiny surface with his knuckles. ‘Seriously of all the things you chose, you chose a toaster for a disguise. Genius move.’

Blaster waited in silence as if waiting for a response. ‘Ya know. I’m sorry. I know it’s not your fault you couldn’t get an Alt-mode change permit when you got back. But ya know if you did get an Alt change the name ‘Toaster’ wouldn’t have stuck. You said you liked it better than your old name, way back just after I got a position at the Iaconian Newsfeed Service.’

Blaster folded his arms nodding as he self-confirmed the memory. ‘That was an interesting time. Nominus was getting increasingly more and more unpopular. Numerous parties were trying to usurp his position then we had that whole incident with Zeta and his Matrix.’ Blaster let out a low whistle ‘You know me Toasts, I was never a super religious or superstitious type, just because he could open the ‘Matrix’ ment scrap to me. But I didn’t like Nominus either. At the time none of us realised what Zeta was like. I guess we all wanted change. Which is unsurprising considering how change is like second nature to us.’

Blaster grinned at his own joke and shot a side glance to Ramhorn who had given up on his nap. The Rhino rolled his optics and turned his back to the orange radio to further display his disapproval. Blaster smugly turned away from his cassette to hide his growing grin. It then fizzled as he remembered the events that would follow Zeta’s rise to power.

‘Now I thought Nominus was a piece of work, but Zeta, he was something else entirely. Faking Matrix affinity really, that was a new low for corrupt rulers.’ He looked at the silver toaster on the table. It always felt better to give a pause as if to listen to the toasters reply. It was impossible he knew, but the orange radio like to hope that maybe one day just maybe he’d hear a response.

‘The reason during Nominus’s time for you not getting an Alt-mode chang was that your job required you to be on root form, so you didn’t even need to use your Alt let alone change it, basically a waste of precious resources which Nominus spent on scouting other planets for resources. Zeta, he was a functionist groupie. Remember that cult that pretty much worshipped him? Claimed changing Alt was against the ruling of Primus and that those who changed Alt were sinners? Zeta didn’t make it any easier after he set up the caste system. Made life pretty difficult for bots like us who don’t have _useful_ Alts. Lucky for me I had already cemented myself at the Newsfeed station thanks to you.’

Blaster’s gaze drifted from the oversized silver cooking appliance to his lone cassette on the berth. ‘You guys didn’t have it so easy.’ He muttered bitterly. Because Toaster turned into something that wasn’t even used on Cybertron and in turn had literally no use, he was practically treated as a monoformer. It was only because of his ties to Blaster that Toaster was spared being reclassified as _‘disposable class’_. His cassettes, specifically Steeljaw and Ramhorn, whose animal root mode resulted in them being treated as little more than dumb beasts, were looked down on by general society.

Steeljaw and Ramhorn were the two Blaster met first, purely by chance. Living on the streets after being abandoned by the bot that ‘owned’ them. Steeljaw being owned by a high-ranking enforcer. He was used to assist tracking scents in investigations. Eventually the enforcer was arrested for abusing his power and position. Steeljaw escaped to the slums not wanting to be charged for crimes he didn’t commit. When Blaster journeyed to the slums to interview the leader of the Militant Monoform Movement he discovered Steeljaw who had just been caught by a thuggish enforcer for stealing. In the spur of the moment Blaster had struck a deal with the enforcer to save Steeljaw with a brib. Steeljaw, eternally grateful and feeling indebted to him, despite Blasters protests, stuck by him ever since.

Less than 10 lunar-cycles later Blaster and his new companion would run into the injured Ramhorn who had been abandoned after sustaining extensive injuries from being forced to participate in beastfighting. An activity Blaster despised and used any opportunity to slam it down when on air. In the beginning Ramhorn was extremely untrusting of Blaster. It was only by the persuasion of Steeljaw that the Rhino began to trust the orange newscaster. Blaster would later run into Eject and his brother Rewind a couple stellar-cycles later. The two had been on the run from Zeta’s personal guard. Blaster would later learn it was because they had been secretly spying on the Prime to find any sort of dirt that could be used against him. Which they had found and later used to help remove Zeta from power. But despite their ties to Blaster, their smaller modes still dictated how the four would be treated by society.

It was Eject that came up with the idea of reforming the four of them into cassettes. Deployer partnerships were not so unheard of. The four discussed the idea together prior to bringing it up to the orange radio. At first Blaster was against the idea entirely but it was Toaster that convinced him in the end. By becoming a 'Deployer' class and turning them into his cassettes the four would be guaranteed to be protected by Blaster and his position by law which would see the cassettes as being 'owned' by Blaster, something Blaster vehemently hated the idea of. However simply being close friends was not enough to guarantee their safeguard and he gave in.

Blaster tapped the desk in thought. In the end he’d gone through with it. It was hard to find someone who would do such a reformat but through Blasters many connections they’d found someone willing in the end. He’d jokingly asked Toaster if he wanted to become a cassette too but his brother laughed stating that he’d rather stick to being a toaster.

Blaster hummed over an idea he’d often thought of over the years. If Toaster had agreed to being his cassette then maybe he wouldn’t have been deployed in that skirmish hundreds of stellar-cycles later in the beginning of what would be their current civil war. If Toaster hadn’t been deployed there, then maybe he wouldn’t have been shot. Maybe then Toaster wouldn’t be incapacitated like this. Devoid of movement and voice.

He remembered when Ratchet told him the news, that Toaster wasn’t going to make it. At the memory Blaster felt a panic rise in his spark. He stiffened and steadied his vents. There was nothing to get upset over. Toaster was alive. He put a hand to his head and let out a long steady vent.

The events after Ratchets news were a blurr to the point of being unrecognisable, but the point was, Toaster had survived somehow. Comatose, trapped as a toaster, but alive. Blaster looked at the desk and leaned over to picked up his brother and pulled the toaster close for a tight embrace. ‘One day you’ll be back to normal ok?’

On the berth Ramhorn watched his long-time friend with a mixture of concern and pity.

***

Ratchet flipped through the last few pages of a file belonging to a long-time patient of his. In fact all of his patients were now long-time with only a handful pre-dating the war. A loud thump of something falling from the ceiling behind him caused him to drop said data-pad.

‘JAZZ I TOLD YOU NOT TO SNEAK UP ON ME.’ Barked the now cranky medic

Jazz grinned sheepishly. ‘Sorry docbot. Thought if I made a louder entrance it wouldn’t be counted as sneaking.’

Ratchet made a face at the SIC as he picked up his fallen pad. ‘So what brings you here?’

‘Just checking up on everyone. Got a juicy bit of intel from Bee today so I’m ecstatic to read the rest.’

‘Hmmm… Care to share?’

‘No can do. This is secret spy stuff, not rec-room gossip stuff.’

‘Then don’t tell me that you have secret spy stuff. Anything else noteworthy?’

‘Sideswipe is still complaining that his nose looks off. Ironhide tripped and fell on Brawn, there’d be a recording of it in the security cameras of which Brawn wants deleted. Umm…Inferno said he doesn't think Red's doing as well as he's letting on, Prowl is Prowl oh and…’ He took a pause as he prepared to out his friend, ‘Blaster’s talking to the toaster again.’

Ratchet let out a defeated sigh and shook his head. ‘There really is very little I can do about that.’ He admitted.

‘There has to be something? We could try to tell him-‘

‘No. Last time we tried to tell him Toaster had died he completely lost it and practically had a mini spark attack when we tried to tell him again later after he calmed down. I can’t approve of doing that to him again.’

‘You have to have some idea? Maybe take away that toaster he found. Primus to this day I’m wondering where he got that thing from’

‘We can’t do that Jazz. And we’ve had this discussion before. I’m a doctor yes, but not of the mind. That’s way out of my field.’

Jazz lowered his head in dismay and not for the first time Ratchet wished he'd been able to expand his field of work. Or at least have someone who could help where he couldn't.

‘I will also remind you of what I said you can do to help and that’s **talk** to him. Don’t leave him to go yabber on to himself.’

Jazz hummed in agreement now regretting rejecting Blasters earlier offer to catch up. ‘I’ll go see if he’s still on break then?’ Ratchet gave a nod of approval then frowned as Jazz jumped back into the ceiling causing a stray plate of metal to fall from said ceiling. ‘Jazz I swear if my roof falls in and kills me, I’m going to come back and haunt you.’

‘hmm Nah the ceiling will hold, and I’d be surprised if that’s what does you in. Thought you were made of tougher stuff than that old mech.’

Ratchet ‘harumphed’ and waved the black and white mech away in dismissal. He turned to the patient files that he’d deposited on the desk. Coincidentally he’d been looking at Blaster's file as Jazz dropped in. Blaster had deluded himself for a long time, hundreds of years in fact. Hiding from the harsh reality.

Toaster has been dead for a long time. He was not coming back.

*****

[RE]Toast selective memories 


End file.
